Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Beauty and the Beast belongs to Disney, not me.

The Palais de Versailles, Anno Domini 1789. Late spring.

"Excellent, young prince, excellent."

Xavier grinned at the praise from his mentor. In the nearly two years he had known her, he had never asked her real name. She had simply asked him to call her "Enchantress" or "Madame".

They were out in one of the more secluded areas of the palace grounds. Xavier was practicing his transformation, as usual. Madame had not lied to him. It was very hard work, and even after this much time he could still only control some of what happened. She had also told the truth that he did not turn into a wolf. When fully transformed, he was a monster. A Beast. Covered in brown fur and built like a bear, but with clawed hands instead of flat paws. He found his face nerve-wracking to look at in this state, because it hovered somewhere between animal and human. It was vaguely human-proportioned with the mouth and nose and eyes in the right places, but the mouth was shaped like and snout and full of sharp teeth, and the nose was hideously arched. He even had short bull's horns and ears that could rotate like a horse's to pick up the slightest noise. His blue eyes always remained the same no matter what form he wore.

However, he had only managed the full transformation to this form twice. Most of the time he got stuck partway there and had to change back. Madame didn't encourage him to fully transform, anyway. She said he wasn't ready yet and that it was more important to learn to control the change by only changing his hands, or his feet, or his ears. She made him practice relentlessly whenever he could slip away to take a lesson with her.

She was always waiting for him whenever he had gone five minutes or so without seeing another person.

Xavier's life hadn't suddenly become perfect since he'd met Madame. His parents were much less affectionate than they had been before Sophie's death. The Queen in particular had gone very quiet since Count von Fersen had left court—though he had not been banished as the King initially demanded. Xavier supposed he would be allowed back eventually but in the meantime his mother was markedly unhappy.

Both of his parents were increasingly tense and sharp with all three of their remaining children. It seemed things were not going well in the rest of France. Xavier heard rumors that people were rioting because there was no bread. Winter this year had been particularly cold. From his tutors he knew that this meant crops would not grow well this year, either. For some reason—and this was something he couldn't quite put his finger on—the peasantry blamed his mother the Queen for all of it.

He explained the situation to Madame. "Ah," she said sagely. "The people dislike your mother for two reasons. One is that she is Austrian. She was a foreign princess before she married your father and some still do not trust her."

"My cousins say Austria is a backwater country with no culture at their court," Xavier remembered.

"Hmm," Madame replied noncommittally.

"What is the second reason the commoners dislike my mother?"

"They say she spends too much money on clothes and decorations and parties," said Madame, "When that money could go to helping the peasantry in their time of need."

This was true. Xavier had no idea how much things cost, but his mother did like to give lavish balls and wear beautiful silks and jewels. But in that, she was no different than any other courtier at Versailles. It didn't seem to be fair of the peasants to single his mother out.

"Maybe if all the nobility spent less on clothes and decorations and parties and instead put the money to buying bread for the peasantry, then the people would no longer be angry."

Madame snorted. "That will never happen. People at Versailles are too fond of their pleasures and their privileges. Try suggesting such a thing to your father the King. You will see what I say is true."

Xavier had done so, and Madame had been proven right, as she always was. The King had looked sad when Xavier mentioned giving the money that might have been spent on even one ball to the poor. "It is a fine thought, son. But the court has a certain way of doing things. Even I cannot order them to change their ways overnight." He patted Xavier's head. He seemed to have forgotten his accusations the night of baby Sophie's death that Xavier was not his son. "There will always be poor people. And they will always be angry at the rich. Don't worry. My ministers tell me we need tax reforms. I have promised to call the Estates General so that they can discuss the matter. All will be well in the end, and things will go back to normal in the country soon."

Xavier stared after him in disbelief as he waddled away. The King could do whatever he wanted. If he ordered something, the courtiers would have to do it whether they liked it or not. So the King must not really want things to change, Xavier concluded. Or at least not much.

"You see?" Madame said when he reported all of this to her.

"What is the Estates General?" asked Xavier. "Everyone's been talking about it for months but they're all too busy to explain."

"They are representatives of the three great estates: the nobility, the clergy, and the commoners," Madame explained. "They haven't been called together for nearly two hundred years."

"Things must really be bad for them to have been summoned, then."

"Indeed. These next few months will determine the fate of many, including you, young prince. You must be ready to face whatever happens."

"Do you know what will happen?" Xavier asked. He had sometimes suspected in the past few years that she could see the future but hadn't been quite brave enough to ask her outright.

"No," she said bluntly. "I have some ideas about what might happen. Things change, and quickly, especially in a time like this when so many different forces and personalities are in play. That is why it is important that you listen to me and learn your lessons. You must be prepared."

"Could you teach me to see the future as you do? Then I'd—"

"No!" she interrupted firmly, almost harshly. Then she softened her voice. "No, my prince. That kind of power you have to be born with. I can't give it to you the way I gave you your other gifts."

It must be like being born royal, Xavier decided. Either you were, or you weren't. This was an easy concept to accept. He hadn't asked her any more about it. Now, at their practice today, the Estates General were only days away from meeting.

"That's enough for today," the Enchantress said. They began to go their separate ways, he back to the palace and she to wherever she went when not teaching him.

"Xavier," she called. He turned back, startled. She was looking very solemn. "Be careful."

He nodded, thinking, what an odd thing to say. No one can harm the dauphin.

Xavier made it back to the palace undetected. One good thing about having accidentally demonstrated his powers to Charles Ferdinand all that time ago was that his cousin virtually left him alone now. In fact, the bigger boy avoided the dauphin when at all possible. Xavier sometimes caught him watching out of the corner of his eyes. Xavier enjoyed the nervous look in his cousin's eyes. It was satisfying after so many years of relentless bullying.

Thus, when he entered the nursery, he was surprised to find the bigger boy did not leave the room the moment he came in as had become his habit.

"What are you doing in here?" Xavier demanded. "Get out."

"Where have you been?" the bigger boy retorted.

"Out on the grounds. Why do you care all of a sudden?"

"Practicing your witchcraft?"

Xavier froze. "How dare—"

"Don't play innocent. How else could you have changed so much that day your sister died? Don't think people haven't noticed you suddenly became healthy that day and haven't been sick since. I'm just the only one who knows the truth."

Does he know about Madame? Has he been following me? Xavier wondered. He can't. Madame wouldn't appear if she knew he was around.

He took refuge in the cold arrogance of a prince. "You're accusing me of witchcraft, Charles Ferdinand? Witches are women. Everyone knows that."

"How did you get better? Was it coincidence it happened on the same day the baby princess died?"

"What are you saying?" whispered Xavier.

"You killed your sister in some pagan ritual and used magic to make yourself healthy. I bet you even drank her blood."

Red shards began to appear in Xavier's vision. He didn't think he'd ever been this angry or this shocked. "I never—"

"Are you denying you killed her?"

Xavier clenched his shaking hands into fists. "No."

"You admit it!" Charles Ferdinand crowed triumphantly. "You—"

He never finished the sentence. Xavier charged him without thinking. He lost any shred of control he'd had. By the time he reached the bigger boy he knew he'd at least partially transformed without the slightest idea which parts of him were still human and which were Beast. He had enough bulk to knock Charles Ferdinand to the floor, that much he did know. He tackled the older boy and pinned him to the floor, sitting on top of his chest and holding down his arms with hands that were rapidly becoming paws. He looked down into Charles Ferdinand's face and snarled an animal's snarl through animal fangs.

Charles Ferdinand screamed. As a human, the high-pitched sound of abject terror would have pleased Xavier. Now, the sound rang against his sensitive ears, disorienting him for a moment. Charles Ferdinand managed to shake him off. Xavier leapt up, ready to pounce again.

A gasp from behind him made him freeze. He spun in a half-crouch.

His sister Marie Thérèse stood in one door to the nursery. In another stood the King and Queen, and several servants.

Xavier collapsed to the floor, slammed back into human form by sheer shock. His clothes were in tatters, however. There was no pretending everything was normal and he and Charles Ferdinand had been fighting like normal boys.

He had changed in front of all of them.

Marie Antoinette was white as a sheet, her famous milky complexion deadly pale. One hand was pressed to her mouth. The King was visibly quivering, made more obvious by the movement of his rolls of fat. The servant women were all clutching each other. Marie Thérèse had both hands squeezed hard against her lips, clearly stifling a scream. The utter horror on her face was the most painful for Xavier to see. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream himself. Instinct told him to bolt, but all the exits were covered.

Charles Ferdinand scrambled backwards like a crab away from Xavier. His vest was visibly ripped from Xavier's claws, though there was no blood.

"Demon," he whispered.

"Monster," muttered one of the servant women, a quiver in her voice.

"Beast."

That was the King.

And Xavier knew he was doomed.


Author's Note: Dun dun duuuuun!

Alright, so those of you who know your French Revolution timeline should have a good guess about what's coming next. Those of you who don't...go do some reading. It won't hurt to learn a thing or two if you're that anxious for spoilers.

It's been hard to write the beginnings of the French Revolution from a child's perspective because he doesn't really get any of it. So there is a lot more going on in the background that I know about but can't write because Xavier simply doesn't have a reason to be privy to these great historical events. The best I can do is hint, and even then the hints are simplistic, like Madame's explanation as to why the common people hated Marie Antoinette. The reasons were both more and less complicated than the ones Madame gives. And the Revolution isn't really the point of the story anyway. We'll be moving beyond it fairly soon as events start to spiral out of control.

Again, no promises on speed of update.

SamoaPhoenix9